Strings
by TeeRoss90
Summary: What if the real reason why Mai never talks about her past was because she has no memory of it? Its close to Halloween and Naru takes a case which just might connect to Mai and her past. What will come of some ghost who looks exactly like Mai wanting to turn Mai into his own Marionette? Can she untie the strings of her past and the strings attached to her arms? Mai x Naru
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: Dream or Memory**

"Hardy Har Har Har!" I laughed. I have become into possession of the Famous Laptop Lin always has! I held it up in victory when all of a sudden a pale hand grabbed it from me. Swinging around I saw Masako and she smirked at me.

"Wait till Naru and Lin see what you've done this time," she said in an evil way and I shook with anger but then stopped and grinned.

"Naru! Lin! Look what Masako has!" I yelled and Masako went wide eyed and tried passing it to me but I moved out of the way and she stumbled when Naru's office door was yanked open and Lin walked in with his cup to Tea and his eyes instantly landed on his Laptop.

"Ms. Hara, I had expected more from you." Naru muttered and smirked.

Lin just shut his eyes and pinched the bridge the of his nose and then started walking towards Masako. As soon as he opened his eyes he glared at me and I froze feeling my body get covered with ice and he grabbed his Laptop and started walking back to his Office.

"Thats not funny Mai." he muttered and shut his office door and I sweat dropped.

"N-Naru, I-I didn't-" Masako was cut off by Naru.

"I already knew it was Mai." he said.

I crossed my arms and pouted when all of a sudden there was a knock and I swung around and opened it when I sighed. "Oh, its just you." I muttered.

"I'm sorry, I'm I not welcomed?" John asked looking at me with big eyes and then I went wide eyed.

"N-No! Thats not what I meant! I just thought that it was a client." I said and then he smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, she said the same thing to me." Masako said behind her kimono and I glared at her. Smiling I opened the door more widely letting John in and he nodded his thanks to me and stepped in.

I sighed and sat down while glaring at Masako and she just looked away with a smug look on her face. I sank down in the seat and I closed my eyes.

_"Come here!" The guy with big brown eyes laughed as he chased the little brown haired girl as she ran away laughing from him._

_"Mommy!" she screamed as she ran with her arms out towards her mother as soon as she came into sight. The mother smiled warmly and picked the little girl up. Her father came running after and put his hands on his knees gasping for breath then he looked up.  
_

_"Come on! My little puppet! Just this once!" he laughed and the little brown haired girl frowned and shook her head.  
_

_"I don't want to be a puppet daddy. I want to be a Princess for Halloween!" the little girl whined and her father sighed and put down the puppet outfit.  
_

_"Fine." he puffed out and started walking away but the little girl caught the look in her fathers eyes telling her it wasn't her father. It was someone else.  
_

_Frowning the little girl watched as her mother watched her father walk away with her mouth in a straight line. She put the child down and the little girl watched as her mother started walking away, soon after the little girl followed her mother only to find her going into her dads study.  
_

_She opened the door and peeked her head in only to jump and step out of the room hearing yelling. She peeked her one eye in to see her father sitting in his chair with one of his Marionettes in his hands as he played with it._

_Just a month ago her father had come out of his study not acting like himself at all and he had a strange obsession with Puppets and Marionettes ever since. He would always make them and then hand them up and dress her up in weird clothes. Her mother and father had been getting into lots of fights lately.  
_

_"What is wrong with you!" her mother yelled and the brown haired little girl flinched at the sound of her ice cold voice.  
_

_"Is there something wrong with me?" her father asked back not even looking up at his wife and just played with his puppet.  
_

_Her mothers face started to get stained with tears as she looked down at her husband. "Why are you acting so different?" she whispered.  
_

_"Am I acting different?" he muttered and started looking at the puppets clothes.  
_

_All of a sudden her mother snatched the puppet and then threw it on the ground. "Stop playing with the damn dolls and listen!" she screamed as her father shook from anger.  
_

_"They are not dolls!" he yelled and raised his hand to smack her when he blinked and then looked around with a worried look on his face and then to his crying wife and went wide eyed. "W=What happened?" he asked and her mother looked at him with shock written all over her face.  
_

_She ran out crying and then the little girl looked at her father only to see that his eyes had that black stare that he had when he was fighting with her mother. He snapped his head to her looking at her straight in the eyes making her jump back and shudder.  
_

_He got up and started walking towards her and bent down in front of her.  
_

_"Want to play dress up? You could be a puppet." he whispered to her and she took a step back.  
_

_"No! I don't! I don't want to be a...!"  
_

__"PUPPET!"

I looked around and then went wide eyed only to see that the whole gang was here and that there was also a client sitting across from me and everyone was staring at me.

"Yes, A Puppet, they would show up out of nowhere and its starting to scare us," the Client said and I looked around confused.

"Huh?" I asked.

Naru glared at me and then sighed. Leaning back a little he looked at me. "While you were napping we got a client, and she was in the middle of explaining whats happening to her and her family when you rudely interrupted her." he said and I sweat dropped and looked to the lady.

"S-Sorry..." I didn't know her name and she jumped up.

"Oh! My name is Akane." she said and I smiled at her.

"Sorry, Akane." I said and she nodded.

"So, will you take my case?" Akane asked with pleaful eyes. Naru looked around.

"Yes. We will be there by tomorrow morning and we will need three rooms. Make that one has lots of plugs in it because that will be our base, and the other two are for a room for the girls and one for the boys." he said.

"Oh, theres no need to have to share rooms...you see. My house...its kinda big." she said and then Naru looked at her for a second and then nodded. Akane smiled and then shook all of our hands and then walked out smiling. As soon as she left Naru turned to all of us.

"be here by 8:00 sharp." he said and looked at me and I blushed and looked away already knowing what he was getting at since I'm always the one to come late and last. "..and pack for about a week." he said and we all nodded.

"Hey Mai. How come you woke up screaming?" Bou-san asked and I looked to him and forced a smile.

"Ha. You see, I had a dream about..." I started telling them about the dream I had and they all looked at me.

"Hm. Thats exactly like Akanes case! Maybe it was one of those dreams!" Ayako said and I thought for a while.

"It didn't seem like a dream. More like a...memory." I mumbled thinking.

"I'm sorry did you say something?" Ayako asked and I shook my head and smiled at her.


	2. Chapter 2

I crossed my arms and looked away from him and out the window of the car door.

"Mai, stop acting like your five and hurry up." Naru said and I stuck my tongue out at him.

He sighed and then leaned over and reached for something by my door but his hand touched my thigh and I yelped and smacked his hand away blushing furiously and I could already feel the glare Masako was giving me from behind. He yanked his hand back and glared at me.

This time, it was Naru who was sitting in between me and Lin.

"Mai." he warned.

"Mai, just give him back his note book." Masako snapped and I looked at her and smirked.

"You just don't want him leaning over me like that again." I said and then covered my hand with my mouth my face going even more red if that was even possible, Maskao hid her face behind her kimono to hide her blush and Naru raised his eye brow at me his face coming extremly close to mine and I opened my mouth to say something.

"You mean like this?" he asked his cheek brushing against my cheek and I gulped when I noticed his hand reach over and grab the note book and he went back to where he was sitting and I gasped.

"Y-You, Jerk!" I yelled at him and Masako looked away with a smug look on and I pouted. "That wasn't funny," I mumbled.

"It wasn't suppose to be funny," he said his eyes skimming over to the note book.

"Really? Then what was it suppose to be?" I asked and he looked up and gave me that look that said You-Really-Want-To-Know-Mai and I saw Lin smirk so I gasped finally realizing what they were getting at.

"Never mind, don't answer that," I said quickly and they both turned away until I finished it off with "Pigs..." but it came out a whisper and Naru glared at me and opened his mouth to give me a smart reply when my door was yanked open and I screamed as I fell out.

"Aw! My little Mai! I missed you so!" Yasu yelled rubbing his head against mine as he held me to his chest and I gasped for breath when I was pulled out of his grip by Bou-san.

"Don't touch my Mai!" he said and then hugged me but I couldn't breath even more when Yasu started tugging me out of his grip.

**Thunk!**

**Thunk!**

I screamed as I fell to the ground and looked up to see Ayako with her purse slung over her shoulder looking down at Bou-san and Yasu as they laid there with there eyes closed and I looked up at Ayako with wide eyes.

"Oh Thank you! Old wise and mighty one!" I said bowing when Bou-san started laughing and so did Yasu when I finally realized what I said.

**Thunk!**

"Ow!" I yelped as I held my head and looked up at Ayako. "You have some problems..." I muttered realizing that Ayako probably hit Bou-san ten times a day when all of a sudden I saw her bag slam down beside my face and I froze and looked up at her face with was now covered with shadows.

"I'm sorry, what? I didn't hear what you said." Ayako said her voice daring me to repeat what I said when I gave her a nervous smile.

"N-nothing," I said and she looked down at me and then started walking away and I sighed.

"Man, she probably has a ton of bricks in there." I said rubbing my head.

"Welcome to my world." Bou-san mumbled and then stood up.

"I'm sorry about there behavior." I heard Naru said and I looked up only to see Akane and who I was guessing her husband beside her. Akane just laughed.

"Oh its alright, its really funny." she said when her husband 'Tsk' and then crossed her arms.

"I don't want them acting like that in my house." he snapped and Naru nodded and the husband looked over to us giving us dirty looks until his eyes landed on me and he grinned widely.

"Welcome back, Mai!" he said happily and at that, everyone looked over. Welcome Back? The husband moved out of the way and I finally got a good look at the house and I furrowed my eye brows. Have I seen this...

I opened my eyes in surprise when Akanes husband came over and picked me up smiling.

"Oh, Mai! I'm glad your back! My son is looking for a boyfriend and your perfect! Come in! Come in!" He said happily. Just a minute ago wasn't he giving us dirty looks?

"I'm sorry, I don't remember giving you my assistants name?" Naru asked looking at him.

"Tsk. As if I wouldn't know her name, you little brat. Don't act all high and mighty." he spat at Naru and I looked at him like he was crazy.  
Then he looked to me his bright smile back on his face. "Lets go inside!" He said and dragged me along.

_"Don't go.."_

I stopped and looked around, where was that voice coming from? I looked up and Akanes husband was looking around with his face red from anger and his grip on my hand tightened around my wrist and I yelped and tried pulling away but he payed no attention to me.

His hand was ripped off mine and I was pulled into a warm chest and I clutched my hand to my own in pain. Looking up I could see Naru glaring at Akane's husband his hands on my shoulders pulling me into him.

"I'm sorry, I would like to ask you not to hurt my assistant." he said and Akane's husband glared at him and reached out for me but I flinched away because he reminded me of someone but I didn't know who.

"Naru." Masako said looking at him wide eyed.

"Yes, Ms. Hara?" Naru asked now looking at her, she glared at me for being so close to him then she looked at Akane's husband.

"Hes, possessed." she said and Naru looked at Akane's husband and glared.

"Who are you?" he asked.

He just ignored him and walked into the house. Naru growled and then let me go.

"Start bringing in everything in. Mai, I want to talk to you after." he said and I nodded and then left to help everyone.


End file.
